A Shield of Konoha
by takoyakikun
Summary: Obito's attack on Konoha takes place five years following Naruto's birth, at the birth of Uzumaki Mamoru. Confused but desperate to spare his brother the burden, Naruto still becomes a jinchuuriki. Seven years later, the story continues. Largescale AU- NaruSaku, others.
1. Prologue

A/N: Hey there! I didn't much enjoy the epilogue of Naruto, to be honest, but that's my inner shipper talking and it's really pretty irrelevant. Anyway, this story is an AU of my own devising after idly wondering fora while how Naruto would have developed had he been an older brother. I enjoy sibling dynamics, so I decided to play around with it and write it out. I hope those of you who read will enjoy- and please excuse the very not canon pairings I've chosen! I hope you can still enjoy the story despite them, particularly since they won't become significant until much later! That said, read on. I've babbled enough!

* * *

 **Shield of Konoha, Prologue**

* * *

"Let me do it."

Naruto- he had always been an assertive child, but nobody had ever heard him talk like he understood the matters of adults, and he wasn't even supposed to be here, not now, not ever. But his parents were on their deathbeds now, and nobody had the heart to force him to leave. He was five years old, about to be an orphan- it would have been too cruel not to give him a choice in whether he saw them one last time.

But this was completely different. Kyuubi was destroying Konoha now, torn from Kushina's body like a scab, and with both her and Minato gravely injured, neither of them could offer to be its next vessel- and sealing it was the only way to save the village now. Nobody could destroy a tailed beast.

They had been speaking- Kushina had just given birth to her second son, Mamoru, and Minato, weak as he was, was still able to give Kakashi and the others the information that it would be safer the younger the new vessel was. Undeveloped chakra pathways could more easily adapt to the tailed beasts' power running through them and alongside them- and it was brought up immediately that Kushina's clan ability had an affinity for chakra suppression, particularly that of tailed beasts.

And so everyone had looked to baby Mamoru, if hesitantly. He was newly born, nearly hairless, and fairly quiet all things considered- Minato had said, this was the best option. That was when Naruto, clinging to Harada Takeo's leg, had spoken up.

"Naruto," Kushina breathed heavily, "You can't. The seal-"

"I'm little," Naruto insisted, "Mama, and I'm an Uzumaki. I can do it."

"That's not what I'm saying, Naruto," Kushina insisted, but Naruto shook his head. This time Minato tried to reason with him.

"You don't even know what you're getting into, kiddo," He said placatingly, "Mamoru-"

"He doesn't know either!" Naruto barked angrily, "And he's too little to even choose! I'm not!"

There was an uneasy silence- little as Naruto seemed to understand the situation, he was still right. He could be given a choice- Mamoru couldn't. Kushina sighed, and pushed herself laboriously into a sitting position on her pallet.

"Naruto," She said softly- out of necessity rather than love. "Naruto, if you do this...you've seen how angry people get with me sometimes. They'll be mad at you now, you know."

Naruto hesitated. He loved people, and he loved the village. He didn't want to be hated the way his mother was. But...

"They would hate Mamoru too, though, right?" He said softly, shuffling.

Takeo, brown haired and yellow eyed, was Kushina's student and a good judge of people, and he was smiling balefully now. His own brother, Yuuta- another of Kushina's cell- had already been killed tonight.

"He wants to protect Mamoru." Takeo said quietly, "What a good brother." He patted Naruto's head hesitantly, with a bloodied hand. Yuuta's blood. He wondered if Kakashi and Iruka could see him swallowing his tears.

Kushina and Minato exchanged a long look. If you listened closely you could hear roaring in the distance- the nine tailed fox crashing about in the village. They looked down at baby Mamoru, named such because they wanted him to protect the village and his family one day, and be a kind man. They both sighed. The red glow in the sky from the nine tails chakra was slowly intensifying.

"Are you sure, Naruto?" Minato asked in a whisper.

Naruto didn't move for a moment. But then he looked down at Mamoru, and nodded decisively.

"Boys," Kushina spoke up, "I mean, Iruka and Takeo. Take Mamoru and find someplace safe. We...I hope we see you again."

"Sensei-" Iruka attempted, but Kushina shook her head at him.

"Kakashi will come with us. It will be alright- he'll bring Naruto back when it's done."

There was silence. The students moved to follow orders, all choking back grief in their own ways. Kushina gave up Mamoru reluctantly, a tearful smile on her face, but Naruto dove into her arms so quickly that there was no time to cry.

Hours passed. The fox was sealed.

Uzumaki Naruto was an orphan.

* * *

 **Prologue, End**

* * *

A/N: That's it for the prologue, sorry if it was too short! I'm already working on chapter one and hope to have it posted very soon. I hope you'll all enjoy Mamoru and the other original characters who will be appearing in the story.


	2. I- Graduation Day

A/N: I wanted to finish and post this last night, but I just got way too tired to keep writing coherently and went to bed. And it took me pretty much all afternoon to finish in the end, anyway! I've edited and proofread to the best of my abilities- hopefully I didn't miss too much.  
This chapter is really long, somewhere close to five thousand words. I hope you'll all still stick around to read it. I worked really hard and would love if you could enjoy it! That said, read on, feel free to tell me what you like about it. And just another reminder...an awful lot of ocs are in this fic. I hope that's okay!

* * *

 **Chapter One: Graduation Day**

* * *

"Onii-chan!"

Naruto groaned- was he up already? Couldn't be, it couldn't be past five in the morning, right? He was sure of it.

"Go back to bed, 'moru..." he mumbled tiredly, and turned over.

It had already been seven years since the night Naruto became a jinchuuriki- he didn't really like to think about it, though. More important was his full time job- raising his little brother, Mamoru.

After his parents' death, the third hokage took office once more. No one they knew at the time had the means to take care of Naruto and Mamoru full time, unfortunately, so the two boys were given a small apartment on the north side of town, near the military housing district. It had a single bedroom, a bathroom, living room and kitchen. It would seem small and cramped to adults, but Naruto and Mamoru found it suited them just fine, especially with the bunk beds their godfather Jiraiya bought them on one of his rare visits. And the war orphans' stipend allowed them to live just barely in comfort, with the help of their parents' former students as well.

Kakashi, Iruka and Takeo were all great, as far as Naruto was concerned. While none of them had the means, time or energy to take care of the two boys all the time, they came by as often and long as they possibly could to make meals, help with homework and simply offer company and care. It wasn't anything like having a family, but it was enough. Naruto didn't ask for much, and Mamoru had never known anything else.

But as they got older, they found themselves on their own more and more often. Kakashi was promoted to captain of his black ops squad. Iruka became a full time instructor at the academy- where, at least, the boys still saw him- and Takeo...well, Naruto wasn't sure what was up with him, but he did come by more often than the other two, at least.

Anyway, Naruto thought as Mamoru irritatingly began to shake his shoulder, it was still a lot better than being on his own all the time. Mamoru was _usually_ pretty easy to take care of, a bright and quiet little boy who was happy to play on his own as long as he had Naruto around- and really, neither boy had any real friends their own age. Naruto was a Jinchuuriki now, and while most of the burden that came with was his and his alone, social ostracization seemed to have spread to Mamoru. Which pissed him off, of course, but he couldn't change it by being angry- that was something Iruka had taught him a long time ago.

Finally, Naruto grew fed up with Mamoru's insistent shoulder shaking and sat up ramrod straight in bed, moving blonde hair out of his blue eyes and grumbling irritably. Then he balked.

It was seven-fifteen.

"Crap! Sorry 'moru!" he barked hastily, and gave his brother a look. The seven year old was blinking his big baby blues at him accusingly, it seemed, his straight red hair poking into them occasionally. Naruto sighed. "Your shirt's on backwards, buddy. Arms up." He said.

Mamoru stretched his arms above his head and Naruto removed the yellow octopus tee shirt from him and put it on the right way around. It had been a gift sent from their godfather Jiraiya from his last stay on the coast. Naruto had gotten a pair of goggles, shiny and new and not cracked like his old ones, though otherwise they were pretty much the same. They were actually laying on his bedside table right now.

The boys hardly knew their godfather, really, but he sent gifts and money every once in a while and, a few times, had made short visits to Konoha for holidays- or so he said. Jiraiya was part of a legendary cell of shinobi, though- Naruto really doubted that he _could_ have the boys at the forefront of his priorities, whether he wanted to or not. But that was neither here nor there to him.

What was really important right now- that was breakfast. And then a mad dash to the Konoha Ninja Academy. There wouldn't be time for anything fancy today like he had hoped- he'd bought stuff to make miso soup from scratch and everything, and fresh pickled radish.

Any other day, Naruto wouldn't have been in a rush, he mused as he helped Mamoru strap on his sandals and buckle his rucksack, but today...

Today was the graduation exam. His third shot at it, even. And he couldn't stand to fail again just by missing it. If he w as going to fail it was going to be kicking and screaming and doing his damndest not to.

"Okay buddy, let's go!" He said, and with their cereal bowls sitting in the sink, the brothers rushed out the door.

Sasuke was at the front gate waiting for them, and he looked pissed.

Really, he was the closest thing Naruto and Mamoru had to a buddy, though Naruto would be the first to admit he didn't exactly like the guy. But their mothers had been close, apparently, so the Uchiha family had been one of those to help look after Mamoru when he was still a baby, before...everything that happened happened. Before Aunt Mikoto passed away. That was a whole other can of worms that Naruto didn't really like thinking about. And anyway, Shisui and his sister were still around to keep Mister Cool Attitude tolerable. Uchiha Itsuko was actually a friend of Kakashi- she sometimes came around with him. She usually brought sweets for Mamoru. He loved her. Naruto kind of liked her too, but he was loathe to get too close to the Uchiha family. Or anyone else.

"You're practically late." Sasuke hissed as Mamoru skittered past them to his own class instructor.

"Yeah, Sorry. My alarm didn't go off." Naruto admitted sheepishly, "'Moru got me up though, no sweat. We still made it."

"Barely." Sasuke bit out. Naruto growled.

"What do you care anyway?" He barked angrily, and Sasuke looked like he was about to say something really awful, but the bell rang, stopping him from going on a tirade. It was time to head to the classroom. Naruto silently hoped that, for once, the test wouldn't be over a jutsu that he couldn't perform. He had terrible chakra control- and though he had been working hard all his life to try and change that, Kakashi had told hiim more than once that it was likely a side effect of becoming a jinchuuriki and there was only so much he could do. That only drove him to work harder, though.

He stalked after the silent Sasuke and begrudgingly took a seat next to him in the classroom. As usual, their morning had started off sour. When they were little, they had gotten on a lot better- especially when both their mothers were alive. Naruto liked to think that, back then, they'd been best friends. But a lot had changed. Nowadays they were lucky when they could go a week without trying to beat each other's brains out. At least Sasuke was nice...well, _nicer_ to Mamoru. That was probably helped along by the little boy's polite attitude, though.

There was a ruckus in the back of the classroom as Naruto was bringing out some notes Iruka had made for him to study, determined not to converse with Sasuke until he was calm enough to do so without punching him. He glanced away from the chakra flow diagram- it was Sakura and Ino.

Sakura was a cute girl with longish pink hair and green eyes, and a good sense of style. Naruto had a little bit of a crush on her, but after a few unlucky experiences trying to interact with her, he'd taken to just greeting her and not really approaching her otherwise. She seemed to resent him for some reason, but he was familiar with that and anyway, she had a pretty obvious thing for Sasuke. Most of the girls and even some of the guys in their class did.

But not Yamanaka Ino, as far as Naruto knew. She was Sakura's best friend, a short haired blonde with feminine taste and a tomboyish personality. She was pretty cool, actually, at least in that she was always nice to the younger students- or so Mamoru said. Naruto didn't know her that well. But he always saw her egging on Sakura's temper and laughing about it, so she must be pretty easygoing under her cocky facade.

The two girls were arguing about who'd made it into the classroom first- Ino said she won by a mile, Sakura rebutted with a statement that Ino couldn't even _run_ a mile with her asthma.

One of the other boys in the class, Shikamaru- Ino's childhood friend, Naruto was pretty sure- piped up with, "It was a tie, now can it and sit down so I can go back to sleep!"

Ino stuck her tongue out at him. "Whatever, sloth boy!" she chirped, but sat next to him with a smile towards Sakura, who was already calmed down- just another fake fight for noise's sake, then.

Predictably, Sakura headed straight for Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto's heart thumped a little, but he knew there was no good reason to be excited. Sakura wouldn't even notice him. Still, he got up out of his seat as she approached, and motioned for her to take the spot closest to the brooding Uchiha.

"Good morning." He said politely to her.

On principle, she turned and nodded at him. "Morning." She said. And then she slid into her seat and forgot completely about him.

But that was okay. It was only the same thing that always happened. Naruto could handle it.

Iruka walked into the room only a few minutes later. Naruto had laid his head down to nap, giving up on his notes, and listened to Sakura babbling at Sasuke, who was only grunting in reply.

"Alright, listen up!" Iruka called. The noise of people chatting and laughing quickly died down and Naruto looked up at his brother figure quietly. Something was different about him today- he wasn't sure what, though. Might have been a haircut, or maybe he had tied his forehead protector weirdly- whatever was off was subtle, but his gut told him something was still missing, or where it shouldn't be.

"Today's your final exam." Iruka said, twirling a stick of chalk in his right hand, "You all know how important that is, so I won't stress it. But make sure you put your all into things, no matter how adept you are. Holding back on an important test is just asking to fail."

The quiet grew a little tense as Iruka turned to write something on the board. Naruto swallowed.

"Not clone jutsu." He muttered desperately, "Anything but clone jutsu."

His nails dug into his knees and he immediately regretted wearing shorts that day. He was so focused that he didn't notice both his seatmates looking at him. Sasuke was carefully blank, but Sakura seemed almost concerned.

Naruto had to hold back the urge to whoop victoriously when Iruka underlined the word _transformation jutsu_ on the chalkboard. Finally, it looked like things were going Naruto's way. Substitution was the only jutsu he really excelled at, but he could be called a little above average at transformation with all the work he had put into learning it properly.

He managed to keep himself carefully neutral, though, and didn't make a sound. No celebrating unless he passed, he told himself. His nails drew blood from his knees as names started to be called.

"Naruto." Someone said. His head snapped up from where he was focused on the ground. Sasuke was looking at him, brow furrowed, but it was Sakura who had spoken.

"You're _bleeding_." She said quietly, "Are you okay?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke again. "Idiot." he said quietly, but it wasn't angry, for once.

"I..." He gave a smile, the biggest one he could. "Just kinda nervous." he admitted- a half admittance, though, as he was actually terrified. Sakura dug in her hip pouch and produced a few small bandages, though.

"Don't hurt yourself just because you're freaked out, you numbskull." She said scoldingly, the most attentive she had ever really been to him. He smiled for real.

"Right. Sorry. Thanks." he said, and quietly went about plastering the bandages on while other names were called. He heard a loud sigh escape Sasuke.

Eventually, Naruto's name was called. The room was nearly empty now. He drew in a deep breath and stood up, finally noticing the sting of the cuts on his knees. As he walked out of the room, he focused on it. It would keep him grounded if he thought of something other than the possible results of his exam.

Iruka's teaching aide, Mizuki, was sitting next to him when Naruto arrived in the exam room. He didn't know Mizuki very well, and he had a gentle, easy smile, but Naruto had never trusted him. That had never mattered, though. He was a teacher, not a teammate.

"This year's exam is over the transformation technique." Iruka said to him plainly when he stood at attention in front of them, "I can't trust you from just one example, though, so Mizuki's been recruited. Please transform into each of us, Naruto."

It was surprisingly open and shut. Naruto passed- not with flying colors, Iruka told him, but satisfactorily. And that was enough for the whooping boy to dive over the table and hug him tightly. Iruka was laughing merrily as he handed over a forehead protector.

"Congratulations, Naruto." He said, "I know you've been working hard for this. Your grades really improved this year."

Naruto was holding back tears as he gripped the metal plated headband. "Yeah." He said dumbly, "Yeah. Thank you, sensei. You too, Mizuki-sensei."

Mizuki offered him a quiet smile and a nod. "Congratulations." He quipped. Naruto tore out of the room yelling after that, and didn't stop until he made it to the schoolyard.

He found Mamoru sitting on the usual swing, and he pushed through the crowd so quickly that his little brother was only just looking up when Naruto scooped him up and twirled him around, shouting happily, "I passed, 'Moru!"

Mamoru caught on immediately- the previous two years Naruto had come out of the building quiet and sober- nothing like this, no hug, no dancing, no screaming his lungs out. The tiny redhead immediately joined him in yelling and threw his arms around his brother and caretaker's neck.

"You did it!" He shouted.

"I did it!" Naruto replied. He was a ninja- a real, genuine ninja. This was the best day of his life.

Once he and Mamoru calmed down and ceased their celebration to catch their breath, Sasuke appeared from within the crowd with his cousin Shisui following behind.

Shisui was blind and eyeless. Naruto didn't know all the details, but he did know that before his injury, Shisui had been a skilled and trustworthy shinobi. It was his loyalty to Konoha that had prevented a civil war, once upon a time. Naruto liked him more for his easy laugh and his kindness, though. Not to mention, Kagemori, his seeing eye dog. Trained by the Inuzukas, of course, the black lab was Shisui's constant assistant and companion, and a lot of fun to play with when he wasn't working. But Kagemori was nowhere to be found right now. Which meant that Shisui's older sister Itsuko was probably nearby, watching over her younger relatives.

"I thought I heard you yellin' over here." Shisui said with a toothy grin, "Didja pass today, Naruto?"

"I did!" Naruto bubbled joyfully, "Not perfect marks, but who cares? I did it!"

"Third time's the charm." Shisui nodded, adjusting his sunglasses. "He'd never admit it, but Sasuke was pulling for you. He said you've really picked up the pace when studying."

Naruto balked.

"Seriously?" He looked at Sasuke in confusion. He hated him, right? Naruto was a runt and a loser- not worth his time. They weren't friends. They always fought over everything. Really, they only stuck together because their mothers would have wanted it, he was pretty sure.

Sasuke snorted and looked away.

"Damn, Sasuke's gone soft." Naruto laughed, "But whatever. Thanks."

Shisui ruffled Sasuke's hair as, true to Naruto's suspicion, Uchiha Itsuko materialized from...somewhere.

She was a petite, short woman, but fierce and commanding, a member of black ops but, outside of that, she was really just a pushy and protective sister figure. A pretty good cook, too. Even though he and Sasuke didn't get along, Itsuko and Shisui both liked Naruto well enough, and Mamoru, to have them over for breakfast a couple of times a month, or when money was tight for the boys. _Any time you need it, runt_ , Itsuko would usually say.  
She had long, wavy black hair and the same dark eyes as Sasuke, but her skin had a healthy tan in contrast to Sasuke's 'I stay inside and read or practice in the dojo all day' pallor.

"Hey, runt." She said amicably. She was out of uniform, wearing a white sweater and dark pants. Simple, but she looked comfortable. That was probably all she cared about on a day off.

"Hey, pushy." Naruto replied, but he was smiling a little. Mamoru, who was hugging him with both arms, looked up at Itsuko and smiled.

"Hi, Ikki." he said. She grinned in reply and reached down to ruffle Mamoru's hair.

"We're doing hotpot for dinner tonight to celebrate." Itsuko informed him, "You two wanna come over to eat?"

Naruto's heart soared at the kind invitation, and he flushed, flattered to be thought of, but shook his head. "Take-nii said he'd take us for noodles if I passed. So I need to call him."

Itsuko nodded. "Roger that. Say hi for us."

"I will."

With that said, the Uchiha family, or what was left of it, bid them farewell and headed off for their own celebratory dinner.

Iruka would be busy wrapping up at the academy that evening and Kakashi was away on a mission until late, so it was just Takeo who showed up to take them to Ichiraku Ramen.

He was a quiet, warm man, Takeo. Medium brown hair and eyes the color of caramel candy, always smiling kindly at Naruto and Mamoru. But the elder of the two boys knew better than to think Takeo was happy- there were scars on him, some of them more visible than others, that said otherwise. And Naruto remembered where they had come from. He didn't like to think about it, and Takeo seemed better now than back then.

He was tall and not bulky, but still well built and healthy. And in uniform, when he showed up at the Academy. His hair fell over one side of his forehead protector and covered part of the leaf emblem on it. He was, as usual, smiling. His hand were shoved into his pockets.

"Hey, boys." He said. His voice was dark and warm, like syrup, or maybe chocolate. Naruto wasn't sure which, but he'd always found the sound comforting.

"Hi, Take-nii." They said back in unison. Takeo smiled even warmer, if that was possible.

"Congratulations on your graduation, Naruto." Takeo said as they began walking, "I'm very proud of you."

Naruto flushed at the praise, not because it was rare coming from the jonin but because he knew it was genuine. Harada Takeo rarely, if ever, said anything less than sincere.

They chatted idly after that, until finally arriving at the older Uzumaki brother's favorite restaurant, Ichiraku Ramen.

It wasn't a fancy place, Ichiraku, just an outdoor noodle stand, but it was popular, and the owner was a kind man who had given Naruto and Mamoru heavy discounts when they were younger and struggling financially. His daughter Ayame had often helped them with the more civilian oriented parts of homework as well as playing simple games with them over the counter.

She was manning the register when they arrived, soft brown hair pulled into a tail under her kerchief, brown eyes warm and inviting with her wide smile.

"Naruto!" She said, "Nice to see you! Mamoru too. You look excited!" She nodded shyly at Takeo without a word. He smiled back. Naruto bit back a snicker and smirked silently at Ayame instead. _I know who you like_ , he would often tease her, causing her to turn pink and hush him angrily. Not today, though, at least not in front of the man in question.

"Onii-chan passed his test!" Mamoru chirped loudly as Takeo lifted him into a seat. Naruto hopped up on his own with a broad smile on his face. Ayame lit up immediately.

"He did?! Oh, that's wonderful! Naruto, I'm so happy for you. First bowl's on the house today, all right? It's a present from me."

Takeo laughed heartily at this. "Lucky you, Naruto! Free food from a pretty girl."  
Naruto nearly choked on the guffaw that tried to push its way out of his throat when Ayame nearly dropped the cash another customer handed her, but somehow he managed to escape any suspicion. Lucky thing that Takeo was oblivious as hell.

Of course, Naruto ate four bowls. Takeo downed a reasonable two, and Mamoru, being so little, had to take his leftovers home. But he loved seafood ramen and he'd finish it in the morning, likely, if Naruto could get up soon enough to heat it up for him.

They stayed for over an hour, chatting with Ayame and her father over their dinner. Naruto spoke about the test and Sakura giving him the bandages. Mamoru talked about getting to play soccer at recess when one of his upperclassmen invited him, a boy named Inomatsu- probably a Yamanaka, though there was no way of knowing if he was close to Ino or not, not without asking. Takeo spoke about some work he'd gotten to do recently in conjunction with the Daimyo's guard. That seemed boring to Naruto, but Ayame seemed interested enough to at least understand what was being said and chip in a few comments. The ramen chef herself spoke mostly about some bizarre customers she'd had recently, but she was speaking mostly to Takeo as usual, and Naruto was held up getting Mamoru cleaned up after some spilled tea at the time anyway.

Once they had finished eating and Takeo paid, the jonin walked both boys home to their third floor apartment.

"I really am proud of you." He reiterated to Naruto as the boy was looking for his key, "You've worked hard for this. You deserve it."

Naruto was giddy from the food and still sailing on the high that came with his graduation, but he understood the gravity of the statement nonetheless.

"Thanks, Take-nii." He said honestly, "I couldn't have done it without you helping me on my math, though. That sh- er, stuff. That stuff is hard."

"Not everyone has a good head for numbers." Takeo said, patting his shoulders, "But you do alright when you set your mind to it. Good luck with your cell, Naruto- but remember to take care of Mamoru."

Naruto nodded. "I'm not gonna forget about 'Moru, don't worry." He replied, "See you later."

Takeo nodded, ruffled a sleepy looking Mamoru's hair and used shunshin to disappear into the night. Naruto unlocked the front door and let himself and Mamoru in.

"Let's do a little homework before you go to bed, okay?" he said as they put the leftovers away. Mamoru looked tired, but it was customary for summer break in Konoha to come with an assignment to keep students' minds fresh. And Mamoru's was a daily journal. Simple enough, and something Naruto could help with- if nothing else, he was good at spelling and writing.

So they sat at the low table in their traditional living room and wrote. Naruto helped Mamoru pick which things to write about- my big brother passed his ninja test, a senpai was nice and let me play soccer with him, we got to eat lots of noodles, simple things like that. Teachers preferred, Naruto had learned, that when keeping a journal students talk less about their studies and more about their daily life outside of them. It was probably a good way to get to know their students, come to think of it.

Once that was done- a twenty minute task at most, Mamoru complained loudly of being sleepy. So Naruto fetched his pajamas from the laundry while he brushed his teeth and took a bath, then pulled out a picture book and tucked him in after reading- the story of the fox and the hawk. It was an old folktale about the joining of earth and sky in the horizon, through the friendship of a magic fox and a bird of prey. Mamoru really seemed to like it, but then it was- surprisingly- written by Jiraiya. At least, the version they owned was. Illustrations were done by someone Naruto didn't know, though.

Mamoru was drifting off by the end, when the hawk flew away and the fox went after it. Naruto tucked the coverlet more tightly around him on the top bunk (He had always insisted it was his) and tossed the book to the side.

"Onii-chan..." Mamoru mumbled.

"What's up, buddy?" Naruto asked.

"I'm glad you became a ninja." Mamoru said, "'m happy for you. I love you."

"Love you too, buddy." Naruto pet his head softly, "Thanks. Rest well."

"Don't forget to tell mommy 'n daddy." Mamoru said sleepily, and turned over. Naruto smiled. The clock read half past eight, and it was already dark.

Mamoru had never known their parents outside of the traditional shrine placed for them on a shelf in the living room. Two pots for incense sat on either side of a photo of their parents smiling broadly and holding each other gently.

Still, Naruto had always made sure to tell Mamoru every good story he remembered about them. _They used to fight over who got to cook, but Mom's cooking was better. Mom was really scary when she was mad, but she told the best jokes and was really pretty. Dad was always really busy but made all the time he could, even took me to work with him a couple of times._ Things like that. So while Mamoru had never met them, Naruto was pretty sure he still loved them dearly, and that made the newly graduated genin happy. He'd been very attached to his parents- he wanted Mamoru to understand why.

He changed out of his day clothes before shuffling into the living room to sit cross legged in front of the shrine. Mamoru would 'get a vibe' and know if he didn't do as requested, and he didn't want to go to sleep without talking to his parents in the afterlife anyway. He knew they couldn't hear him, but it felt good to just talk to the air as if they were around sometimes.

"I graduated today." he started quietly. He heard people walk by in the hallway, laughing together, and smiled.

"Konoha's rough on me, sometimes." he said, touching the picture frame, "But I think I know why you still loved it so much, mom. Even though people can be terrible, there are some really kind ones here."

He sighed contentedly. "Take-nii took us for ramen today, and let me eat as much as I wanted." he said per first example, "Sakura- you know, the girl I like- she gave me bandages when I messed up my knees today. She doesn't like me much, but she's still nice to me. I like that about her...and one of the Yamanaka kids let Mamoru play soccer on his team today, a kid from the year above him. Inomatsu, I think?" He nodded. "Yeah, that was it. And I guess even Sasuke- he's _nothing_ like Auntie Miko- still, I guess he was cheering for me to pass the exam, and that's cool."

He breathed again. Someone was moving around in the bedroom, but it was probably just Mamoru getting restless in his sleep, or Iruka popping in to check on them. He didn't always use the door.

"Oh, and dad!" He said with a grin at his father in the photo, "You would have lost it. Ayame, she nearly burst a vein when Take-nii complimented her tonight. I thought I was gonna lose it myself, I-"

Naruto stopped dead. Something was way off.

Whatever chakra was in the house with him and Mamoru now, it wasn't anyone he was familiar with. And that was bad. And it was too close for comfort.

Naruto was far from the fastest or strongest or smartest, but he had an intensely honed survival instinct, and when it told him to roll out of the way, he _listened._ And it saved his life, because a wakizashi buried itself in the floor where he'd been only seconds ago.

And now, on his back, he could see Mizuki, staring down at him with a wide eyed, manic smile.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

A/N: Soren here! I hope those of you who read to the end enjoyed this. I don't have an update schedule planned, but I'll be posting as often as I can. Reviews and commentary are very welcome as long as they're not scathing, of course! I'm uh, kind of a wimp, and angry comments discourage me just like they would anyone else. Concrit is very much accepted though! I do strive to improve where I can.

Next chapter will be up ASAP! I know I left this one on a tense note so I don't want to keep you biting your nails for too long.


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